Texas has made strides in improving health care, but El Paso experts say a lot more needs to be done to bring the area up to par with advanced 21st century medicine.

That was one of the main concerns that health care professionals and providers voiced Friday to Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Chris Traylor, who was on a two-day visit to El Paso.

"We need specialists to provide categories of care that have not been readily available in El Paso," said Dr. Bradley Fuhrman, who is a professor and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Paul L. Foster School of Medicine. Fuhrman is also physician-in-chief at El Paso Children's Hospital.

Fuhrman and others said that El Paso, which is among the top 20 U.S. cities in terms of population, lags in advanced services such as open heart surgery, transplants and other medical procedures. This, experts said, forces residents to travel to Houston or other cities to receive advanced medical care.

From doctors to health officials, about 40 people joined a roundtable discussion with Taylor and state Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, to say that the lack of advanced treatment also makes it difficult to attract medical professionals.

"It was an extraordinary meeting of health care experts and providers that gave me a real insight into the operations in health care," Traylor said.

Roundtable participants spent about 90 minutes at the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce talking about which health care services are doing well in El Paso, as well as what could be done to improve the quality of life in the city.

Hospital CEOs, physicians and city health officials lauded the state and city's efforts at improving mental and behavioral health. They also gave Traylor ideas on how to improve health care by suggesting things such as creating an electronic record system that can keep tabs on medical records from El Paso, Juárez and the region.

Experts also told Traylor that the state could improve the services offered to people who are suffering from mental and behavioral disabilities by strengthening the social-services safety net. They talked about the need to improve pediatric and adult care, as well as addressing ways to improve uncompensated care.

"As we move forward with providing services through the Medicaid program, it is very important that particularly children and adults that are enrolled in the Medicaid program have access to the services that are available to them. It is really important for us going forward that individuals, particularly those who have a mental health diagnosis, are able to access these type of mental health services that will allow them to live productive lives," Traylor said.

Traylor also said that the state will look at getting a Medicaid transformation waiver extension. The waiver, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission website, allows the state to expand Medicaid managed care while keeping hospital funding. It also provides incentive payments for health care improvements and allocates funding to hospitals that serve large numbers of uninsured patients.

"The extension of the waiver will allow us to maintain some of the wonderful things that we have done in the health care system in El Paso and across the state. We have been able to reform systems at the local level for mental health and behavioral health services," Traylor said. "We were able to provide services to populations like people with intellectual (and) developmental disabilities that we were not able to help in the past."

Rodríguez said that Taylor has been receptive to El Paso's needs and is willing to fix some of the health care issues that affect the region.

"He understands the border issues very well," Rodríguez said.

Luis Carlos Lopez may be reached at 546-6381; lclopez@elpasotimes.com; @lclopez4 on Twitter.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Chris Traylor's name.